: Several studies have been conducted over the years for a simple, reliable, cost effective investigation to know the intensity of systemic inflammation in patients suffering from shock, major surgery, sepsis, cancers, thromboembolic disorders (stroke, cardiovascular diseases, peripheral vascular diseases). Significance of granulocytes especially the critical role played by neutrophils in pathophysiology of various infections, inflammatory diseases and cancers has recently begun to emerge. Increased number of neutrophils in the peripheral blood and tumour microenvironment is seen in different type of cancers. Neutrophilia with lymphocytopenia is the feature of various infections. Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) has been proposed as a simple, reliable and cost effective test. The NLR can be calculated easily from data that are routinely available. NLR could be an important predictor of outcome of critically ill patients.

Aim: To explore the average values of NLR in adult, both outpatient and inpatient undergoing diagnostic investigation in a tertiary care, teaching hospital, Bengaluru, India.

Materials and Methods: Prospective study was conducted for a period of 3 months from February to April 2015. Subjects <18 years and who were prescribed steroids, chemotherapy, immunomodulators and antibiotics or surgery were excluded.

Results: Overall 549 subjects are included in this study. The average value of absolute neutrophils is 5600 cells/mL, Absolute lymphocytes 2300 cells/mL and the average NLR is 2.8±2.2. Subjects who reported inflammatory diseases had higher NLR compared to diabetes, hypertension. Smokers had significantly higher NLR than subjects who did not. Differences in male and female NLR was seen. Significant difference in NLR was seen with different religion.

Conclusion: The present study is an attempt in providing preliminary data on disparities in NLR as a marker of inflammation, which is seen to be associated with outcome of many chronic illnesses. This calls for setting of various cut off points for these conditions. In our study, mean NLR is 2.8±2.2. High mean NLR is seen in male subjects, smoker, obese individuals and those suffering from inflammatory diseases.

Keywords
: Inflammatory response, Lymphocyte count, Neutrophil count

How to
cite this article :
Ranjeeta Sadashiv Banakar, Rashmi Verma. AVERAGE VALUES OF NEUTROPHIL LYMPHOCYTE RATIO AMONG A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF ADULT POPULATION IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL. National Journal of Laboratoy Medicine [serial online] 2018 July [cited: 2018 Aug 14 ]; 7:PO01-PO04. Available from http://njlm.net/back_issues.asp?issn=2277-8551&year=2018&month=July&volume=7&issue=3&page=PO01-PO04&id=2294